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MPM-Flow project -- Participants

The project involves Hydraulic Engineering, Geoscience, Geo-Engineering as well as Applied Mathematics. This interdisciplinary setup allows to gain deeper insight into flow slides and to obtain a mature numerical solution for analyses of erosion problems. Close collaboration is envisaged between the project partners and industrial partners. A team of four PhD students find their bases in the four participating research groups.

Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Prof W.S.J. (Wim) Uijttewaal heads the Section Environmental Fluid Mechanics as well as the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics of the Delft University of Technology, Department of Hydraulic Engineering. Together with Dr R.J. Labeur, assistant professor at the section, he supervises a PhD-student in the incorporation of a turbulent flow model into the MPM code (work packages 4 and 5). This entails involvement in laboratory experiments and MPM validation (work packages 1 and 2).

Prof Uijttewaal holds the chair of Experimental Hydraulics and has been involved in, amongst others, experimental research projects that relate to the mechanical interaction between free-surface flows and movable bed as well as the formation of turbulence structures and obstacles [WB10, RL07, WU03, RL12, WO13]. He was involved in STW projects e.g. on curved open channels (DCB.6787 and DCB.7780) which resulted in improved 1D engineering models for the evolution of meandering natural river channels as used by Deltares and Rijkswaterstaat. Prof Uijttewaal is an expert in shallow flow turbulence and has executed a large number of experimental projects to unravel the important dynamics associated with turbulent structures. Dr Labeur, permanent staff in the department, developed a 3D-FEM turbulent flow model (FinLab) for simulation of water flow in and around shipping locks, storm surge barriers as well as of wave propagation in coastal zones and of sediment and erosion in harbour basins. It is used for research at TUD and Wageningen University and by RWS as well as Svasek B.V. engineering consultants. Prof J.D. Pietrzak, Prof A.J.H.M. Reniers as well as Prof J.C. Winterwerp are further full professors of the group.

Utrecht University
Faculty of Geosciences

Department of Earth Sciences
Eurotank Flume Laboratory

Dr J.T. (Joris) Eggenhuisen is assistant professor at the Utrecht University, Department of Earth Sciences and director of the Eurotank Flume Laboratory. Together with Prof P.L. (Poppe) de Boer, professor emeritus of sedimentology at the department, and G.A.M. (Gerard) Kruse, senior specialist at the Unit Geo-engineering of Deltares, he supervises a PhD-student in the execution of laboratory experiments for the study of flow slides at the Eurotank Flume Laboratory (work package 1). The PhD-student will also work on the further development of physics based models to describe erosion, transport and deposition of soil as well as soil heterogeneity as relevant to flow slides (work package 3). Models to incorporate soil heterogeneity in numerical analyses will be devised.

Dr Eggenhuisen has been involved in the study of high energy sediment transport mechanisms such as turbidity currents, in which he gathered extensive expertise in physical experimentation as well as sediment deposition [MC14, JE12a, JE12b]. Expertise developed in the Eurotank Flume Laboratory includes high-concentration and high-energy sediment erosion, transport and deposition. He leads an experimental program of four PhD-students and one Post-Doc that links sediment flow processes to deposit characteristics. His past performance have resulted in the acquisition of 1.3 M€ for the turbidity current program EuroSEDS in 2014 from both industry sources (Shell, ExxonMobil, Statoil) and NWO. EuroSEDS will be executed in parallel to the flow slides project proposed herein. Mr Kruse was mentor of PhD students at VU University Amsterdam and Utrecht University, member of the commission on earthquakes for Eurocode 8 of the Netherlands Institute of Standards. He has been involved in research on modelling of continental slope processes, earthquake hazard analyses and modelling heterogeneity in soil for among others liquefaction and on erosion of dikes and natural embankments by waves [GK11, AN99, JT14, RH07, GK07, GK02]. Prof De Boer is member of the MER subcommittees on gas and salt extraction in the Waddenzee coastal region and of the Wadden Academy.

Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Prof S.N. (Bas) Jonkman holds the chair of Hydraulic Structures and Flood Risk of the Delft University of Technology, Department of Hydraulic Engineering. Together with Dr K.J. (Klaas Jan) Bakker, associate professor at the section, he supervises a PhD-student in the validation of the MPM for flow slide analyses (work package 2). The PhD-student will be involved in the modelling of soil-water interaction (work package 3) and laboratory experiments for validation purposes (work package 1). Experiments will also be performed for this purpose at the departmental Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics.

Prof Jonkman has been involved in advisory and research activities related to the hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans as advisor and specialist of Rijkswaterstaat. He was involved in several hydraulic engineering and flood management projects worldwide as consultant at Royal Haskoning. His group focusses on research and education related to flood defences and storm surge barriers, probabilistic design and flood risk management as well as life cycle aspects in hydraulic engineering [SJ08, SJ03, SJ13]. Over the past decades, members of the hydraulic engineering group of Delft University of Technology have played a major role in the scientific development of methods for several aspects of risk and reliability analysis of flood defences. Examples are the research on breaching of dikes [PV98] or levee reliability analysis [HV01, WK13, TS14] which has been implemented in the models for design, safety and risk assessment. The research group is involved in various (inter)national (applied) research projects, e.g. in New Orleans and Texas (USA), Vietnam, China and Singapore. Members of the group are active in national and international advisory boards, such as the Dutch Expertise Network on Flood Risk (ENW), and international communities on levee safety.

Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department of Applied Mathematics
Section of Numerical Analysis

Prof C. (Kees) Vuik is full professor of Numerical Analysis at the Delft University of Technology, Department of Applied Mathematics. He supervises a PhD-student in the development and improvement of mathematical and numerical solutions for existing and newly developed physics based models used with the MPM (work packages 4 and 5).

Prof Vuik as part of the Scientific Computing group of the Delft Institute for Applied Mathematics has developed a number of software packages that are extensively being used by various industries. Examples include the use of the fast linear system solver by Shell (www.shell.com) and Schlumberger (www.schlumberger.com), the use of the free-boundary finite element package by TATA Steel (www.tatasteel.com) and the use of the finite element package maintained by spin-off company SEPRA (www.sepra.nl) by Alcoa (www.alcoa.com). The group maintains active working contacts with research institutes such the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory (www.nlr.nl), Deltares (www.deltares.nl), small hi-tech companies such as Plaxis (www.plaxis.nl) and consultancy bureaus such as Vortech (www.vortech.nl). The group has a lot of experience with FEM and FVM methods applied to multi-phase flow (oil-water, water-air, etc.). Techniques and methods used in his previous research [SP05, SP08] are useful to combine with the MPM method as developed in this project. In particular the experience of Prof Vuik in the field of fast and robust solvers for multi-phase flow problems and the modelling of (moving) interfaces between phases is essential for the proposed project. He is director of the Delft Centre for Computational Science and Engineering.

Deltares
Unit Geo-engineering

The MPM Software of the MPM Research Community which will be used and further developed and extended during the project has been proven to be applicable to the considered types of problems [KA07, SA10]. For geotechnical and hyrodynamical applications the MPM Software has been extensively tested and validated by Deltares in various national and international research projects and practical applications. Prof Vermeer is supporting the project through his engagement at Deltares. He is a worldwide known expert in numerical modelling and development of the finite element method and founding father of the Plaxis FE-software. In the past years MPM has been implemented at Deltares by his support and funded by several European research projects such as e.g. MPM-DREDGE, Geo-Install and Geo-Fluid.